Engaging Turkey Initiative

Following in the footsteps of earlier ISD initiatives to strengthen Europe’s engagement with its neighbours, Beyond NATO and EU Enlargement: A New Transatlantic Track of Strategic Engagement with Turkey looks to place a new focus on relations with Turkey. This project seeks not to supplant but to complement the existing EU enlargement and NATO tracks of engagement. As Turkey strives to assert its geostrategic position in its neighbouring regions, developing its own ‘neighbourhood’ policy to enhance its spheres of influence, it is necessary – and advantageous – for both Europe and the United States to open an additional track of strategic engagement with Turkey.

Given the stagnation in both the EU and NATO tracks of engagement, there is a need for a transatlantic dialogue with Turkey that moves beyond the narrower spheres of EU accession and NATO co-operation. It is vital for Europe and the US to adjust to the reality of Turkey’s evolving geo-strategic position and to engage accordingly if they wish to maintain Turkey’s western interests and commitment. This project will begin by creating a Task Force to explore the establishment of a new geo-strategic track of engagement with Turkey that would potentially lead to practical partnership in the resolution of wider regional problems.

The project is being organised in conjunction with the Brookings Institution, with the generous support of the Carnegie Corporation of New York.